Results: Butler County voters reject school security levy for 5 school districts

This Feb .14, 2018 photo shows Northwest School District School Resource Officer Dennis Muntean talking with students, Olivia Wyles, left to right, Cora Jandecka, and Ian Yoder during their lunch period at Northwest High School on Canal Fulton, Ohio.(Photo: Kevin Whitlock, AP)

Butler County voters rejected a school security levy that would have generated about $4.6 million annually for five school districts.

The Edgewood, Fairfield, Hamilton, Monroe and New Miami schools were all part of a newly formed school financing district allowed under a new law.

The levy failed by slightly more than 3,000 votes, with about 53 percent of more than 50,000 voters rejecting it, according to unofficial results.

Revenues from the proposed 10-year, 1.5-mill school security levy would have been split among the districts based on property values in each participating district, ranging from $69,399 in New Miami to nearly $2.2 million in Fairfield.

The levy would have funded additional school resource officers, security equipment and mental health professionals in schools. Had voters approved, the Butler County school districts would have been the first in the state to benefit from this type of levy.

But opponents said too much money would be used for mental health issues rather than security.

Supporters said mental health funding would result in safer schools.

“National and local safety and security experts all agree the single most important component in addressing school safety concerns is servicing the mental health needs of its students," said Russ Fussnecker, superintendent of Edgewood Schools.

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Reynolds said, "I don’t think it’s been planned out what they’re going to use the money for, for the next 10 years. I share the sheriff’s view that it appears to be a money grab. ... What little I’ve heard that’s come out of the schools doesn’t seem to be focused on the security side but the mental health side.”